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SUISAN Company, Ltd, 1965 KAMEHAMEHA AVE. P.O. BOX 366 HILO, HAWAII 96720 PHONE: 808-935-8511 ~~~a ~Pft is erg ~ ~s Apr;117,2007 ~ Hawaii County Council County of Hawaii Ben Franklin Building 2"d Floor Hilo, Hawaii 96720 Re: Bill 156 Draft 4 Affordable Housing Requirements for Industrial Pazk Developments Deaz Chairman Hoffman and Members of the County Council: I appreciate this opportunity to offer testimony on behalf of Suisan Company, Ltd. on BiII 156 Draft 4 Affordable Housing Requirements for Industrial Park Developments. Suisan Company is celebrating its 100a' Anniversary hi 2007. One hundred yeazs in business is quite an achievement and we are very proud of this accomplishment. Over the past one hundred years, the company has suffered through tsunamis, economic slumps, and many other difficult challenges that we have managed to endure and overcome. The company has provided food, a basic necessity of life, for the entire Big Island over all these yeazs and we realize how important a role the company plays in our community. Suisan now employs 190 employees, all residents of the Big Island in Hilo and Kona. After a hundred years in business, we continue to prepare for the future. We anticipate the need to adjust to mazket conditions, including our plans to expand and relocate to more efficient facilities for our future growth and to improve our service to our customers on the Big Island. Suisan has concerns about the inequity and hazdship that Bill 156 would cause our business as we proceed with our expansion plans to more efficient facilities if the relocation of our existing facilities and employees to another location required some form of industrial zoning. This bill would require Suisan to incur the cost of earning or paying for affordable housing credits, even if its employees have housing, as they do today. The potential cost of satisfying such an affordable housing requirement may conceivably prevent us from relocating our facilities and impact our service level to food businesses in the County of Hawaii. We humbly request the Council's careful consideration of this bill and its impacts upon local businesses. While many businesses have not been in existence as long as Suisan Company, their interests and ability to survive are the same as ours. We feel Bill 156 in its current form is not an effective affordable housing strategy. The bottom line is Comm, t3o. 7 0U • Z~.~ Ref. 70: Pry~A Ret. Uate APR 18 2~~1 r FAX: 808-935.2737